Psalm 111 Overview
YHWH's deeds
Psalm 111
Welcome to the Overview of Psalm 111
This page will introduce and provide orientation to Psalm 111 as a whole. It includes the following sections:
Introduction to Psalm 111
Author:
Purpose:
- To praise YHWH for his deeds of covenant faithfulness
Content:
- YHWH's deeds are great and his commandments are enduring.
Message:
- YHWH, our God, has done great deeds for us, and, we his people, do his commandments.
Psalm 111 At-a-Glance
These sections divide the content of the psalm into digestible pieces , and are determined based on information from many of our layers, including Semantics, Poetics, and Discourse. The columns, left to right, contain: the verse numbers; the main title of the section; a brief summary of the content of that section (quote marks indicate the text is taken directly from the English text of the psalm (as per our Close-but-Clear translation); and an icon to visually represent and remember the content.
Background Orientation for Psalm 111
Following are the common-ground assumptionsCommon-ground assumptions include information shared by the speaker and hearers. In our analysis, we mainly use this category for Biblical/Ancient Near Eastern background. which are the most helpful for making sense of the psalm.
- YHWH made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants, promising to give them the land of Canaan (Gen. 12; 15; 17; cf. Ps. 105:8–11).
- Because of his covenant with Abraham, YHWH redeemed his people from Egypt and brought them into the promised land (cf. Ex. 2:24; 6:2–8).
- YHWH's great deeds and wonderful acts are associated especially with the Exodus story. In the Exodus story, YHWH redeems his people (Ex. 1–15), provides them with food in the desert (Ex. 16), and gives them the law (Ex. 19ff).
- YHWH settled his people in the land so that they would keep his commandments (cf. Ps. 105:44–45).
- The people did not keep YHWH's commands, and so YHWH removed them from the land (cf. Ps. 106).
- Because of his covenant with Abraham, YHWH promised to rescue his people from exile and from the sin that caused the exile, just as he had rescued them from Egypt. He also promised to give them a king, and to give them the nations as their inheritance (cf. Isa. 40–66; Zech. 9–14; Pss. 2; 110; etc.)
Background Situation for Psalm 111
The background situation is the series of events leading up to the time in which the psalm is spoken. These are taken from the story triangle – whatever lies to the left of the star icon.
Participants in Psalm 111